Why is it important to monitor temperature in industrial refrigerators?

The fate of millions of refrigerated materials—from products to vaccines to reagents—relies on consistent refrigeration at precise temperatures. To ensure industrial refrigeration temperatures remain consistent, labs must use cold storage monitoring.

Without proper and reliable temperature monitoring tools, organizations can face irreversible loss. Consider what happened at the University of Alberta—they lost several unique ice core samples retrieved from the Canadian Arctic due to a malfunction in a laboratory freezer monitoring system. The ice core, believed to be the oldest in the Canadian Arctic, held historical climate data that researchers were using to address crucial questions regarding climate change and the history of our planet. 

This loss is devastating not only to the university but to our society as a whole. Not to mention—can you imagine being the poor person who discovered and had to relay the news of the loss? 

While not everyone must safeguard the oldest piece of ice on Earth, an industrial refrigerator monitoring system is still vital. Whether you’re looking for a new commercial refrigerator temperature monitoring system or upgrading your old one, keep reading to explore the ins and outs of industrial fridge monitoring.

Why is it important to check the temperature of a refrigerator?

Even a state-of-the-art refrigerator can suffer temperature fluctuations. These could be from an internal malfunction or due to an external influence. Without consistently checking the temperature of a refrigerator, it’s impossible to know if the temperature has remained steady or experienced spikes and dips.

Some offenders that can cause these unpredictable variations in temperature include:

• Overloading - Overloading a refrigerator with too many products and materials can impede airflow and reduce the ability of the refrigerator to maintain a consistent temperature.
• Door opening - When someone opens a refrigerator door, warm air from outside enters, causing the fridge temperature to rise. If a door is left open accidentally, this can be even more problematic. Using the Elemental Machines Platform, teams can track specific details about all door-open events and usage patterns. For example, if a certain refrigerator is consistently being opened more frequently than others, it may be worth considering adding an additional unit to better distribute the load.
• Power outages - Power outages or electrical malfunctions can force a refrigerator out of commission, causing the temperature to rise or fall outside the optimal range.
• Mechanical failures - Mechanical failures, such as issues with the temperature sensor, can cause the temperature to deviate from the desired range.
• Environmental factors - Room temperature, light, and humidity are environmental factors that can affect the ability of the refrigerator to maintain a consistent temperature. Moving a refrigerator to an area that gets more sun from a window might cause internal fridge temperatures to rise, for example.

How do you record a fridge temperature?

The best way to record refrigerator temperatures is with wireless digital temperature sensors connected to a cloud-based monitoring system. While you could stick with traditional analog thermometers or chart recorders, these methods are too time-consuming and ineffective in today’s technology-driven landscape. 

Some benefits of moving away from outdated temperature monitoring devices to digital solutions include:

• Cost savings, as digital sensors are more cost-effective due to lower ongoing operational expenses and lower susceptibility to equipment failures.
• Easy data storage and organization, seamless backup and retrieval, and the ability to connect to central monitoring and processing software.
• Regulatory requirement support for the preservation and retrieval of monitoring data. Teams can also track calibrations and comply with the Food and Drug Administration’s ALCOA guidelines for data collection (“ALCOA” stands for Attributable, Legible, Contemporaneous, Original, and Accurate).
• Alerts to specific people or groups, enabling fast, efficient, and proactive responses to environmental control problems.

Does someone still have to be on-site to read a digital temperature sensor? Not at all! Remote monitoring allows companies to keep a watchful eye on sensor readings 24/7 from any off-site location. With that in mind, one question remains…

How can I monitor my refrigerator temperature remotely?

Businesses can monitor refrigerator temperatures remotely by adopting smart monitoring sensors with an app to check fridge temperature. If thoughts like, “Nah…sounds too complicated to install,” are crossing your mind, fear not! Elemental Machines sensors are so easy to set up that they can start sending data just 60 seconds after you take them out of the box. 

Plus, these sensors can connect to virtually any type of equipment, no matter who made it or when it was made. Our platform also easily integrates with most laboratory information management systems (LIMS), quality management systems (QMS), and other popular management software.

And as far as reliability and data trustworthiness, we frequently hear our customers praising the accuracy they see in our system compared to competitors. No more false, ambiguous alarms or systems that demand to be reset again and again—Elemental Machines is here to provide you with peace of mind. 

Want to see how our temperature monitoring technology can help your team? We would love to show you a demo—schedule one by clicking here!